The present disclosure relates generally to optical fiber connectors and systems, and specifically to slender optical fiber connectors that have relatively small diameters, and to ingress protected optical fiber connectors and systems.
Demand for bandwidth by enterprises and individual consumers continues to experience exponential growth. To meet this demand efficiently and economically, data centers have to achieve ultra-high density cabling with low loss budgets. Fiber optics have become the standard cabling medium used by data centers to meet the growing needs for data volume, transmission speeds, and low losses. An optical fiber connector is a mechanical device disposed at an end of an optical fiber, and acts as a connector of optical paths, for example when optical fibers are joined to each other. An optical fiber connector may be coupled with an adapter to connect an optical fiber cable to other optical fiber cables or devices. An adapter generally includes a housing, or portion of a housing, having at least one port which is configured to receive and hold a connector to facilitate the optical connection of one connector to another connector or other device.
In external applications wherein the adapters and connectors may be exposed to weather, such as rain or moisture, the connectors may be configured as ingress protection (IP) connectors that are waterproof. However, traditional ingress protected optical fiber connectors and/or adapters are relatively bulky. Furthermore, a conventional optical fiber connector has many constituent parts. For example, referring to FIG. 1, U.S. Pat. No. 6,318,903 B1, entitled “Optical fiber connector for back plane” discloses an optical fiber connector 11 including a protective dust cap 48, a connector housing 12, a ferrule barrel assembly 20, a coil spring 26, an insert 27, a crimping member 34, a clip member 40, a protective boot 46 and an incoming fiber cable 36, which are assembled in sequence so as to finish the optical fiber connector 11 shown in FIG. 2.
A conventional optical fiber connector that has many constituent parts results in a relatively large outside diameter, and also necessitates more complex assembly and manufacturing processes. Accordingly, there is a need for optical fiber connectors, including ingress-protected optical fiber connectors, that have relatively small diameters.